Microsoft’s long-awaited workplace chat app finally has a release date.
The business technology giant said this week that its Microsoft Teams chat app would be available on Tuesday, Mar. 14.
Microsoft (MSFT) first detailed its chat app in November, pitching it as a way for employees in companies to better communicate with each other via online conversations.
Get Data Sheet, Coins2Day’s technology newsletter.</em></p> <p>Microsoft Teams will be part of the company’s Office 365 suite of work tools, which already includes Word, Excel, and the Skype video conferencing service. These various online subscription services—along with the Azure cloud computing service and other database services—comprise Microsoft’s growing cloud business.
However, Microsoft faces a lot of competition in what’s becoming an increasingly crowded space of work-and-chat apps. Some of the companies that currently sell workplace chat apps include Cisco (CSCO), Atlassian (TEAM), and Facebook (FB).
Perhaps its biggest competitor in the space is the hot enterprise software startup Slack, whose chat app is used by several big companies like Capital One and IBM. Coins2Day’ s publisher Time Inc. Is also a Slack customer.
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When Microsoft first announced its chat app, Slack bought a full-page ad in The New York Times in which the company said in a cheeky way, “We’re genuinely excited to have some competition.”